Endgame wrote: An example set of questions I have:
Given: Vim's boots full construction cost (relic + legendary) is roughly 2350 at current auction prices.
Also given: Secondary market costs of Boots of the 4 winds is about 1200. Kilt is around 300, and skull is around 1500(?)
Do you expect Vim's boots to be desirable enough in builds that a player already owning Boots of the 4 Winds will replace them with Vims?
Do you expect a new player who is outright purchasing high end tokens to choose Vim's over Bot4Winds + either skull or Kilt, given that the eldrich items also confer a level and other set bonuses?
Do you expect a player who is saving trade goods to transmute their first legendary to transmute Vim's or Boaz when they use roughly 3x the TG of building older legendaries, such as Pharacus's?
Do you expect a player who is saving trade goods to transmute their first Relic to do so when they use roughly equivalent the TG of building older legendaries, such as Pharacus's?
+1
I love True Dungeon and appreciate it tremendously. My comments here are about a specific cost creep that has been getting worse year by year. I'd like to see TD continue and selling tokens is a huge part of that. Like any hobby, that means new players are the lifesblood to it continuing to be healthy for years to come. Please don't take these comments as being critical about your organization as a whole - just a critique of a troubling trend.
Why spend $950 to transmute the boot relic when you could buy a secondary market legendary that is superior in every way? A Surtr's Belt just went for $700 in auction a few weeks ago. Would this relic be more valuable than that legendary?
Spending $2K for these boots when compared to $1,500 for BoFW makes no sense.
The escalating transmute costs give players fewer and fewer reasons to participate in transmutes beyond the 3 and 4 star ones when much better options are available through secondary markets.
I'm a hard-core collector (have all but 2 UR+ non-unique tokens every made) and I can't see transmuting these myself at these prices. This past year I did the transmutes but mainly because of how overpowered the legendaries were.
The logic to these boots is that they are for newer players. Very few newer players will want to do this transmute at these costs (and those that do will kick themselves after looking at Trent/Kirk/Chad/Mike's stores for what they could have bought for the same costs.) The total transmute (relic+legendary) can't exceed $1,500 or it doesn't make sense to do. As a general rule, I'd recommend 5 star relics not exceed $500 and legendaries not exceed $1,500. Maybe make the eldritch and arcanum and similar transmutes stratospheric in costs but, now that in-person is back, bringing in new players is even more important.
I would recommend that component costs be reduced by at least 30% and the boots should be dropped by at least 50% (yes - back to 2018 levels if they are aimed at newer players - remember, not everyone gets 23 draws per run and does 50+ runs/year.)
Fred